Tips To Protect Your Server From Getting Hacked

Generally as we know that when we visit a web page or when you interact with any web application on internet, some of the information pertaining to us will be stored on the server. When the hackers enter into a hosting server they will try to obtain the root access of your server and will know the confidential database details, which are restricted to the regular visitors. They crack the personal information about the user and steal credit card numbers, which the user submit while making a purchase through the website.

Have doubt on how this hacking on your server takes? Want to know more how the servers are hacked and how we can protect our servers from being hacked?

Being able to run this server-side scripting language or the data in transit is not protected or not encrypted are the reasons to hack, most of the time. Different hackers use different ways, often called white hat hackers and black hat users. These white hat hackers find the security flaw in a script of a website or software and make it public, where as black hat users are malicious hackers, who tamper illegally with software installed in your computers and tell other users about how to do the same.

Finding hackers breaking into your server is difficult to find, as they are not easy to spot. The script kiddies utilize free software hacking programs called “exploits” and distribute them over the internet.
When you suspect malicious software programs, you must be able to react quickly to minimize the outbreak. If your server is prone to an attack by a hacker, here are some tips on how you can protect your server:

1. Disconnect the system from the network

If you suspect your server is infected, then you simply disconnect the system from the network to avoid from any infected programs. Rather than fixing the current problem, leave the system on the network and document this reports in your incident response plan.

2. Discover the method used by the hacker

Know the methods hackers use to overcome the problem, as they use different types of hacking technologies. Using software tools like tripwire, you can identify the files whether any they are uploaded, added or changed on the system. Also find the owner of the files to let you know what is the application used by the hacker to get into server breaking. Investigate the files that were uploaded on the server system which might provide the valuable information about the attack against your server.

3. Information from the running scripts launched by the attacker

Use the lsof (list open files) commands in the system which includes the disk files, pipes, network sockets, the user who owns them, and devices opened by all the processes through which you can find the source of the attack from this information. Also use rootkit detection tools like rkhunter or chkrootkit to scan the possible local exploits to identify and detect the common attacks. It also performs checks to see if commands have been modified, and various checks on the network interfaces.

4. Stop all the attacker scripts and remove the files

Now that when you have identified the cause of the attack on the server you can safely eradicate the running scripts launched by the attacker and remove all the files and save them in a different location for further investigation. Once we know the method used by the hackers, we can stop it and restore the network connection like mail, DNS etc.